Rave - Kiss me if you want. I don't care. *grins*
Katoru - Yes, Oz, as in the Oz played by Seth Green. I like Seth
Green. Yes, it's the Wolfboy. This is actually a plot point. Take
note of this, peoples.
Anyways, with Spring Break having happened, I got a little behind on
my writting. Not on Shiva, as for those of you who have read it know
that I got two chapters up in only a couple days, when I said it
would be two or three _weeks_ between updates. I'm a bad girl.
But, Chapter Thirteen is half-way done. Jei meets Xian Phu. That's
all I'm going to say.
False Identity
Chapter Twelve: Kunous
Li Xiang
Ranma crawled into her room via the window, cloaked in the Umisenken.
They'd continued to make plans well into the night, up until Ranma
had proclaimed he was about to drop dead on his feet, and returned to
the Koneko no Sumi Ie. She'd left her credit card and pin number with
Schuldich-- or actually, he'd plucked the numbers from his mind and
gave them to Rache.
With a tired sigh, she sunk down into her bed and fell asleep.
---
Shaking his head, the eight-year-old stood shakily. He then threw
himself at the boards that held him in place. A brand new dog collar
was tight around his throat, an old chain hooked to it. This chain
was bound around a tree, and wooden boards had been set up to keep
him trapped.
Jei stood outside the boards, staring down at his pet. Bandages
bounded his arms, while his clothing had small dark spots where blood
had seeped through the fabric, "You've been bad, Kitty."
The ebony-haired boy hissed at him and Jei frowned, "Until you
behave, you're not leaving." He can remember his mother using this
tactic on him.
He'd gone an entire day, once, before apologizing for hurting his
sister. Kitty would just have to learn what he was allowed to do, and
what he was not, the same way Jei did.
Nodding to himself, Jei turned, and walked away.
---
Ranko was jerked out of her sleep, eyes snapping open as she surged
to her feet. There was nothing that should have awakened her in the
room. Expanding her senses, she searched for a reason for being
pulled from her sleep.
Aya, Yohji, Omi and Ken were asleep in their rooms; obvious, first,
from the lack of noise, and second, from what she could sense of
their auras- they were stationary. For a split second, she thought of
thanking Happosai for "training" her to sense his aura, just so she
could avoid him. The moment passed swiftly, and she banished all
thoughts of Happosai to the back of her mind where they were shot
several hundred times.
Slipping from her room, Ranko paced the floor, peering quietly into
her housemates' rooms. There was nothing, nothing at all, that should
have been enough to have woken her. Finding no solution to this
problem, she padded back to her room, hissing softly in irritation.
Entering her room, she froze.
This was what had awakened her; and she knew that it was her fault
for not checking outside her window. Eye twitching slightly, she
pulled her shirt up and over her nose, before moving silently toward
her "gift".
The bouquet of black roses was promptly thrown out the window, while
the redheaded young woman retreated from the room. She should have
known Kodachi would know every flower shop in Tokyo; not to mention
the fact that Kodachi, or her servants, would have recognized her.
And with Ranma out of Nerima, with Akane, Ukyou and Xian Pu still
there, Kodachi would automatically believe that "the red haired
hussy"-who, considering she _was_ Ranma, would not be in the
district, either-- was at fault. Who knew what other tricks the
psychotic gymnast had left for her!
Not even bothering to take a pillow or blanket, the redhead set off
for the only other place in the Koneko that she knew she'd be able to
sleep-- Aya's room.
---
Aya stirred, but did not wake as Ranko rose to her feet the next
morning, six o'clock sharp. Drawing herself up, she slipped from his
room, silent as any ghost. She has a mission.
A mission that, admittedly, didn't actually _need_ the glass of ice
water she'd procured. Still moving without sound, she slipped into
Ken's room, glass behind her back.
He was sprawled across his bed, having fallen asleep in the boxers
and T-shirt he'd been wearing when Weiss had returned. A devious
smile lit her lips as she leaned over, "Time to get up, Hidaka."
Ken mumbled something about demons, then rolled over. Her smile
turned into a full fledged 'as-evil-as-they-come' grin, "You've got
ten seconds, Ken, then it's bath time."
Still no movement. She counted down from ten, out loud, then tipped
the glass over his head. Following this, she put her free hand across
his mouth, to prevent any noise from escaping to alert the rest of
Weiss. She didn't want them to barge in, and interrupt her "mission".
Ken sat up, shoving her hand away, and attempted to get his wet hair
out of his face. Once that was reasonably accomplished, Ken turned to
face the one who'd awoken him.
Ranko perched on the edge of his bed, with a strangely serious look
on her face, "You gonna explain, now?"
His sleepily confused look would have been cute, but Ranko ignored
facts like that, having long practice in doing so. She blew a breath
of air through her teeth in irritation, "Fuu. The chain thing,
Hidaka. How'd you go through it?"
"Uh... Ranko, could we talk about this later?" his voice dropped to
such a level that even Ranko's Neko-ken-enhanced hearing had trouble
making it out, "Preferably somewhere that isn't likely to be
monitored by Kritiker."
She blinked, "Are you tryin' ta get out of explainin' to me?"
Yes. "I just... don't like people knowing." Well, that was true
enough. Ken's sleep-fuddled mind stumbled onto something else, "Hey!
I thought you'd left with Schwartz!"
"I did," she responded absently, "but I came back." standing, she
left the room with a frown.
"That part, I knew," was Ken's dry response to her back. He shifted a
bit, glaring down at the wet spot in his bed, "Now how am I going to
get back to sleep?"
---
Ranko had pushed all the furniture in the mission room against the
walls. She was dressed in a loose blue shirt that fell just past her
hips, and a pair of sweat pants, seeing as her regular work out
clothes were still at the Tendou Dojo.
As usual, she started warm-up with a few light stretches, and a
couple karate kata. Chi-kata to put power back into her moves via
dynamic tension, Pidan Nidan and Pidan Sandan to make sure her
balance was still perfect after three days without practice. Then she
flew into one of the beginning kata of the Founding School of
Musabetsu Kakatou Ryu.
At quarter to seven, she heard movement above, but ignored it, as she
continued to run through a number of ground-based kata. The ceiling
was preventing her from performing any of the air-based ones.
It wasn't until the sounds of hyperactive fangirls filtered down
around seven thirty that she came to a halt. It wasn't all that long
of a practice-- only an hour and a half, but she was tired of
thinking in circles about the same things. Besides, she was getting
hungry.
Padding up the stairs, she nodded a greeting to Ken, then vanished
into the kitchen. Once her hunger had been sated-- Weiss would have
to go shopping soon-- she returned to the room she'd been given.
Without thought, she scribbled a note and taped it to the door.
It read, in messy katakana, which was barely legible, "Going out
tonight. Sleeping. Go away."
---
The fact that someone was banging on the door pulled her from her
slumber. Rache growled low in her throat, but stumbled to the single
apartment's door in the short, six steps it took.
"What?!" the girl all but snarled into the face of the unsuspecting
brunette outside her door. The taller woman jumped in surprise.
"Naru...?"
"What do you want, Kino?" Rache scrubbed at her forehead, glowering
at her neighbor. Why did she have to see this woman, _now_? All she
wanted to do was sleep, and maybe abuse Ranma's-- sorry, Xue Shi's--
charge card.
Kino was frowning, but handed her a white card; "It's your invite to
the wedding."
Rache took the card; and frowned, "Don't expect to see me there,
Kino," without bothering to say goodbye, she slammed the door shut.
The card was tossed to the top of her kitchenette's counter, and she
dropped herself back onto her futon. Eyes shut, she was asleep before
her head hit the pillow.
Outside, Kino was still staring at the door, "That was rude."
"That's Rache for you," a nasal voice came from behind the brunette.
Whirling, she found herself nose-to-nose with a red haired man who
bore a striking resemblance to the woman she'd just spoken to,
"Always a bitch when she's been up all night."
"Who are you?!" Kino lifted her fisted hands into a guard position.
The man laughed.
"Schuldich."
Kino started as he blurred, then vanished.
---
"Sleeping beauty awakes!"
Ranko shot Yohji one of the darkest glares she had ever summoned,
lips drawing back in a sneer, "How'd the girls take your
disfigurement, Kudou?"
Sore spot! Ranko crowed to herself as Yohji's expression darkened. He
didn't respond, and she pushed past him, tugging on a pair of
oversized black leather gloves, "I'm going out. Don't expect me back
until tomorrow."
And then she was out the door and down the street. It was only a
couple moments later when Manx entered the shop.
---
The phone, Oz noted, was ringing. Not unusual. However, he was unable
to get the phone. Oz was dying his hair, again. With a shrug, the
teenaged guitarist decided that it was up to Fei to get it.
Fei, on the other hand, was so involved in his video game that he
couldn't _hear_ the phone. Three more rings, then a click, and the
answering machine picked up, "Oz? Oz, answer the damned phone! I
_know_ you're there!" several moments of silence, then, "Alright...
Fei? You there? Hey, Wu Fei!"
Fei's head snapped up, "My name is _Li Fei_! Not _Wu Fei_, Sushi!"
"It's the answering machine, idiot," was Oz's call from the bathroom.
"Oh," now alerted to the plight of their caller, Fei paused his game
and lifted the receiver, "My name is Chang Li Fei, not Chang Wu Fei,
Sushi."
"Then don't call me Sushi," came the female voice, "It's about time
you picked up."
"Playing video games," was the response, and a silence that screamed
"I should have known that. I really should have know that" from the
caller. Said caller spoke again after several moments of this.
"Look. Tell Akira I have to take a rain check on that recording
again. Family business and all that."
The Chinese teen blinked, "Alright... does it have something to do
with last night?"
"...yes." And no more. Not even a 'bai-bai'. The line was just dead.
Fei looked at the receiver a bit surprised.
"Wow. _Must_ be important. We usually get into a fight before she
hangs up."
---
Ranma, in male form, stood silently behind, and slightly to the left,
of Jei. He was wearing his regular Chinese outfit, although the blood
red tunic bore an embroidered black oriental dragon on the back. The
black leather gloves that had been falling off his delicate
female-form's hands fit snugly to his callused male-form's hands.
They stood around the gate at the Narita Airport, awaiting Reiji's
arrival with his "Old Friend". According to Crawford, they would then
retire to the friend's home for the night, before returning to
Reiji's own home, most likely drunk.
Ranma's meeting with Nagi and Crawford had been rather anti-climatic,
comparing to the events of the last few days. It was hard to believe
that it had been less than a week since Crawford had sent Schuldich
and Farfello to Nerima to pick up Kitty.
When Kitty had meet Crawford, Oracle had greeted him, zoned out for
moment in a vision, then gave the confused martial artist a tight
smile. Nagi had greeted him with a nod, then returned to his
computer. An hour later-- as well as a phone call to a certain
"pilot"-- and they were out of the door and on their way to the
airport.
They had been expecting two tanned men in suits-- Reiji was a rather
serious businessman, after all. However, what they got was two men,
laughing loudly, as thought drunker than hell, wearing colorful,
floral print T-shirts and shorts. Not to mention flip-flops and
sunglasses.
Ranma groaned. It wasn't loud enough for the men to hear, but
Schwartz did.
"Something wrong, Bishoujo?"
Ranma didn't get a chance to answer Schuldich's question-- Reiji's
"old friend" saw him.
"What you doing here, Keiki?" This brought Reiji's attention to the
ebony-haired boy.
"Who are you?"
"Saotome Ranma, Sir," surprisingly, there was no tone in the boy's
voice, "I work for Farfello-sama."
"You don't work," the old friend-- Kunou Pauline -- snorted. Ranma
did gain a tone when he responded to him. One that was designed
specifically to prompt fights. It was one he'd used all the time back
in Nerima.
"With all do respect, _Sir_, you've been in Hawaii for the past two
months. Things change." He fell silent then, returning to "natural
stance"-- feet shoulder width apart, hands loosely fisted, and held
in front of him, about hip level-- behind Jei.
End
(I wanted to go further, but I just couldn't figure out where to go...)
Katoru - Yes, Oz, as in the Oz played by Seth Green. I like Seth
Green. Yes, it's the Wolfboy. This is actually a plot point. Take
note of this, peoples.
Anyways, with Spring Break having happened, I got a little behind on
my writting. Not on Shiva, as for those of you who have read it know
that I got two chapters up in only a couple days, when I said it
would be two or three _weeks_ between updates. I'm a bad girl.
But, Chapter Thirteen is half-way done. Jei meets Xian Phu. That's
all I'm going to say.
False Identity
Chapter Twelve: Kunous
Li Xiang
Ranma crawled into her room via the window, cloaked in the Umisenken.
They'd continued to make plans well into the night, up until Ranma
had proclaimed he was about to drop dead on his feet, and returned to
the Koneko no Sumi Ie. She'd left her credit card and pin number with
Schuldich-- or actually, he'd plucked the numbers from his mind and
gave them to Rache.
With a tired sigh, she sunk down into her bed and fell asleep.
---
Shaking his head, the eight-year-old stood shakily. He then threw
himself at the boards that held him in place. A brand new dog collar
was tight around his throat, an old chain hooked to it. This chain
was bound around a tree, and wooden boards had been set up to keep
him trapped.
Jei stood outside the boards, staring down at his pet. Bandages
bounded his arms, while his clothing had small dark spots where blood
had seeped through the fabric, "You've been bad, Kitty."
The ebony-haired boy hissed at him and Jei frowned, "Until you
behave, you're not leaving." He can remember his mother using this
tactic on him.
He'd gone an entire day, once, before apologizing for hurting his
sister. Kitty would just have to learn what he was allowed to do, and
what he was not, the same way Jei did.
Nodding to himself, Jei turned, and walked away.
---
Ranko was jerked out of her sleep, eyes snapping open as she surged
to her feet. There was nothing that should have awakened her in the
room. Expanding her senses, she searched for a reason for being
pulled from her sleep.
Aya, Yohji, Omi and Ken were asleep in their rooms; obvious, first,
from the lack of noise, and second, from what she could sense of
their auras- they were stationary. For a split second, she thought of
thanking Happosai for "training" her to sense his aura, just so she
could avoid him. The moment passed swiftly, and she banished all
thoughts of Happosai to the back of her mind where they were shot
several hundred times.
Slipping from her room, Ranko paced the floor, peering quietly into
her housemates' rooms. There was nothing, nothing at all, that should
have been enough to have woken her. Finding no solution to this
problem, she padded back to her room, hissing softly in irritation.
Entering her room, she froze.
This was what had awakened her; and she knew that it was her fault
for not checking outside her window. Eye twitching slightly, she
pulled her shirt up and over her nose, before moving silently toward
her "gift".
The bouquet of black roses was promptly thrown out the window, while
the redheaded young woman retreated from the room. She should have
known Kodachi would know every flower shop in Tokyo; not to mention
the fact that Kodachi, or her servants, would have recognized her.
And with Ranma out of Nerima, with Akane, Ukyou and Xian Pu still
there, Kodachi would automatically believe that "the red haired
hussy"-who, considering she _was_ Ranma, would not be in the
district, either-- was at fault. Who knew what other tricks the
psychotic gymnast had left for her!
Not even bothering to take a pillow or blanket, the redhead set off
for the only other place in the Koneko that she knew she'd be able to
sleep-- Aya's room.
---
Aya stirred, but did not wake as Ranko rose to her feet the next
morning, six o'clock sharp. Drawing herself up, she slipped from his
room, silent as any ghost. She has a mission.
A mission that, admittedly, didn't actually _need_ the glass of ice
water she'd procured. Still moving without sound, she slipped into
Ken's room, glass behind her back.
He was sprawled across his bed, having fallen asleep in the boxers
and T-shirt he'd been wearing when Weiss had returned. A devious
smile lit her lips as she leaned over, "Time to get up, Hidaka."
Ken mumbled something about demons, then rolled over. Her smile
turned into a full fledged 'as-evil-as-they-come' grin, "You've got
ten seconds, Ken, then it's bath time."
Still no movement. She counted down from ten, out loud, then tipped
the glass over his head. Following this, she put her free hand across
his mouth, to prevent any noise from escaping to alert the rest of
Weiss. She didn't want them to barge in, and interrupt her "mission".
Ken sat up, shoving her hand away, and attempted to get his wet hair
out of his face. Once that was reasonably accomplished, Ken turned to
face the one who'd awoken him.
Ranko perched on the edge of his bed, with a strangely serious look
on her face, "You gonna explain, now?"
His sleepily confused look would have been cute, but Ranko ignored
facts like that, having long practice in doing so. She blew a breath
of air through her teeth in irritation, "Fuu. The chain thing,
Hidaka. How'd you go through it?"
"Uh... Ranko, could we talk about this later?" his voice dropped to
such a level that even Ranko's Neko-ken-enhanced hearing had trouble
making it out, "Preferably somewhere that isn't likely to be
monitored by Kritiker."
She blinked, "Are you tryin' ta get out of explainin' to me?"
Yes. "I just... don't like people knowing." Well, that was true
enough. Ken's sleep-fuddled mind stumbled onto something else, "Hey!
I thought you'd left with Schwartz!"
"I did," she responded absently, "but I came back." standing, she
left the room with a frown.
"That part, I knew," was Ken's dry response to her back. He shifted a
bit, glaring down at the wet spot in his bed, "Now how am I going to
get back to sleep?"
---
Ranko had pushed all the furniture in the mission room against the
walls. She was dressed in a loose blue shirt that fell just past her
hips, and a pair of sweat pants, seeing as her regular work out
clothes were still at the Tendou Dojo.
As usual, she started warm-up with a few light stretches, and a
couple karate kata. Chi-kata to put power back into her moves via
dynamic tension, Pidan Nidan and Pidan Sandan to make sure her
balance was still perfect after three days without practice. Then she
flew into one of the beginning kata of the Founding School of
Musabetsu Kakatou Ryu.
At quarter to seven, she heard movement above, but ignored it, as she
continued to run through a number of ground-based kata. The ceiling
was preventing her from performing any of the air-based ones.
It wasn't until the sounds of hyperactive fangirls filtered down
around seven thirty that she came to a halt. It wasn't all that long
of a practice-- only an hour and a half, but she was tired of
thinking in circles about the same things. Besides, she was getting
hungry.
Padding up the stairs, she nodded a greeting to Ken, then vanished
into the kitchen. Once her hunger had been sated-- Weiss would have
to go shopping soon-- she returned to the room she'd been given.
Without thought, she scribbled a note and taped it to the door.
It read, in messy katakana, which was barely legible, "Going out
tonight. Sleeping. Go away."
---
The fact that someone was banging on the door pulled her from her
slumber. Rache growled low in her throat, but stumbled to the single
apartment's door in the short, six steps it took.
"What?!" the girl all but snarled into the face of the unsuspecting
brunette outside her door. The taller woman jumped in surprise.
"Naru...?"
"What do you want, Kino?" Rache scrubbed at her forehead, glowering
at her neighbor. Why did she have to see this woman, _now_? All she
wanted to do was sleep, and maybe abuse Ranma's-- sorry, Xue Shi's--
charge card.
Kino was frowning, but handed her a white card; "It's your invite to
the wedding."
Rache took the card; and frowned, "Don't expect to see me there,
Kino," without bothering to say goodbye, she slammed the door shut.
The card was tossed to the top of her kitchenette's counter, and she
dropped herself back onto her futon. Eyes shut, she was asleep before
her head hit the pillow.
Outside, Kino was still staring at the door, "That was rude."
"That's Rache for you," a nasal voice came from behind the brunette.
Whirling, she found herself nose-to-nose with a red haired man who
bore a striking resemblance to the woman she'd just spoken to,
"Always a bitch when she's been up all night."
"Who are you?!" Kino lifted her fisted hands into a guard position.
The man laughed.
"Schuldich."
Kino started as he blurred, then vanished.
---
"Sleeping beauty awakes!"
Ranko shot Yohji one of the darkest glares she had ever summoned,
lips drawing back in a sneer, "How'd the girls take your
disfigurement, Kudou?"
Sore spot! Ranko crowed to herself as Yohji's expression darkened. He
didn't respond, and she pushed past him, tugging on a pair of
oversized black leather gloves, "I'm going out. Don't expect me back
until tomorrow."
And then she was out the door and down the street. It was only a
couple moments later when Manx entered the shop.
---
The phone, Oz noted, was ringing. Not unusual. However, he was unable
to get the phone. Oz was dying his hair, again. With a shrug, the
teenaged guitarist decided that it was up to Fei to get it.
Fei, on the other hand, was so involved in his video game that he
couldn't _hear_ the phone. Three more rings, then a click, and the
answering machine picked up, "Oz? Oz, answer the damned phone! I
_know_ you're there!" several moments of silence, then, "Alright...
Fei? You there? Hey, Wu Fei!"
Fei's head snapped up, "My name is _Li Fei_! Not _Wu Fei_, Sushi!"
"It's the answering machine, idiot," was Oz's call from the bathroom.
"Oh," now alerted to the plight of their caller, Fei paused his game
and lifted the receiver, "My name is Chang Li Fei, not Chang Wu Fei,
Sushi."
"Then don't call me Sushi," came the female voice, "It's about time
you picked up."
"Playing video games," was the response, and a silence that screamed
"I should have known that. I really should have know that" from the
caller. Said caller spoke again after several moments of this.
"Look. Tell Akira I have to take a rain check on that recording
again. Family business and all that."
The Chinese teen blinked, "Alright... does it have something to do
with last night?"
"...yes." And no more. Not even a 'bai-bai'. The line was just dead.
Fei looked at the receiver a bit surprised.
"Wow. _Must_ be important. We usually get into a fight before she
hangs up."
---
Ranma, in male form, stood silently behind, and slightly to the left,
of Jei. He was wearing his regular Chinese outfit, although the blood
red tunic bore an embroidered black oriental dragon on the back. The
black leather gloves that had been falling off his delicate
female-form's hands fit snugly to his callused male-form's hands.
They stood around the gate at the Narita Airport, awaiting Reiji's
arrival with his "Old Friend". According to Crawford, they would then
retire to the friend's home for the night, before returning to
Reiji's own home, most likely drunk.
Ranma's meeting with Nagi and Crawford had been rather anti-climatic,
comparing to the events of the last few days. It was hard to believe
that it had been less than a week since Crawford had sent Schuldich
and Farfello to Nerima to pick up Kitty.
When Kitty had meet Crawford, Oracle had greeted him, zoned out for
moment in a vision, then gave the confused martial artist a tight
smile. Nagi had greeted him with a nod, then returned to his
computer. An hour later-- as well as a phone call to a certain
"pilot"-- and they were out of the door and on their way to the
airport.
They had been expecting two tanned men in suits-- Reiji was a rather
serious businessman, after all. However, what they got was two men,
laughing loudly, as thought drunker than hell, wearing colorful,
floral print T-shirts and shorts. Not to mention flip-flops and
sunglasses.
Ranma groaned. It wasn't loud enough for the men to hear, but
Schwartz did.
"Something wrong, Bishoujo?"
Ranma didn't get a chance to answer Schuldich's question-- Reiji's
"old friend" saw him.
"What you doing here, Keiki?" This brought Reiji's attention to the
ebony-haired boy.
"Who are you?"
"Saotome Ranma, Sir," surprisingly, there was no tone in the boy's
voice, "I work for Farfello-sama."
"You don't work," the old friend-- Kunou Pauline -- snorted. Ranma
did gain a tone when he responded to him. One that was designed
specifically to prompt fights. It was one he'd used all the time back
in Nerima.
"With all do respect, _Sir_, you've been in Hawaii for the past two
months. Things change." He fell silent then, returning to "natural
stance"-- feet shoulder width apart, hands loosely fisted, and held
in front of him, about hip level-- behind Jei.
End
(I wanted to go further, but I just couldn't figure out where to go...)